Years End

 I am not sure what I have been doing this last month- there has been quite a lot going on in sellling my mothers house and though my brother did a lot of that, there was still quite some work in packing mum's things for her new place and then settling her into her new apartment- moving is definitely not my favourite thing but in sorting out mum's house ( which had so much stuff- a lot of it less than useful) I realised i need to rationalise some of my stuff. It's not too bad as I have moved quite a lot since 2009 and shed life wasn't conducive to collecting many things- but I need to reappraise things and just streamline things.

Needless to say I have not made many things recently- fell into a bit of a hole after my exhibition finished and  whilst I have stitched a bit here and there- have not achieved a great deal. Did make a new linocut but need to dye more fabric in order to print and until recently I had run out of fabric to dye and could not go to Melbourne to get some more fabric due to lockdowns. So I thought I would do a review  in photos of the year that was, starting with January  2021. January I was busy  preparing for my on-line linocut course which started early February. These were examples of simple linocuts printed on newsprin and fabric. If anyone is interested I will run the linocut course again sometime in  2022- just depends a little if in the flesh workshops go ahead as planned or not.

February 2021- still prepping for the linocut course . It takes ages to write and collate the notes and exercises as everything has to be photographed through its stages. The notes ended up being substantial - almost a book really.

The image below is some drawings I purchased at Ste Marie aux Mines- which  were made for one of the printing companies in the Rhine valley- they were selling off their designs quite cheaply and I could not resist.

March 2021

I started making pods- woke up one morning and thought it seemd like a good idea. It went through a few prototypes before I found a shape I liked and also tried different linings- some of the vliesoline was too stiff and did not lend itself to a nice rounded shape.

April 2021

I decided that I needed to make pomegranate pod shapes as well and made a little linocut to make the seeds.

May2021

Went to the Rone exhibition at the Geelong Art Gallery- and  kept stitching on my traveller's blanket with blue circles and stitched more pods.

June 2021

Went to the Mary Quant Exhibition in Bendigo and continued stitching hoping against the odds that my workshop for Fibres West in WA in July would go ahead- things were looking very dodgy with covid spreading again.

And I finally finished the One World Traveller's Blanket- with blue circles all 87 of them!

July 2021

Got the dreaded news - Fibres West was definitely cancelled for Victorians ( and a bit later that month WA closed its borders to all states and territories) The financial implications were not good for everyone involved including the organisers- for example Qantas does not reimburse its airfares- simply gives the option of using the ticket up in the next 12 months which is not very useful when the next planned event is actually 2 years hence- 2023.

Got carried away making  pockets to wear.

August 2021

Started off rather badly- landed in hospital after suffering a heart attack and spent a couple of days in the Alfred in Melbourne whilst they inserted some stints in a dodgy artery. Once I was home again life sort of returned to normal or as best as I could but my garden did get a bit out of control as no heavy work for at least 6 weeks which included pushing a lawn mower- and well weeds grow no matter what as does the rotten grass- I am still trying to deal with the aftermath of that! Walking is now an imperative and one of my daughters came to help despite the lockdown although she got here before the lockdown actually was imposed. Started using my cold press laminator which had been sitting and staring at my in its box in the loungeroom and found it very useful to do mono printing with found leaves and weeds from my walks.

September 2021

I had a small exhibition booked at Arc Yinnar and was very tempted to cancel it after my heart attack  but instead decided I would do it and see what I could get done. My middle daughter, Siena Galtry designed a booklet for me which contained photos and a poem of sorts devoted to the inspiration offered by morning walks- I don't know why i had to write a poem but I did and my readers were very supportive of the effort. I have a few left but I did cover the cost of this vanity project.

October 2021

Exhibition at the Sparc Gallery- this is  not a big space but surprisingly roomy when you are not feeling on top of the world- I did manage to fill it but only just and to my great delight I sold quite a few works. Most of the works were smaller as that is what I could cope with at the time but they were all inspired by my morning walks in the little bushland reserve where I walk.

November 2021

I had enrolled in a printing course run at Arc- which ran for a nine week period and it was great fun. We did all sorts of different kinds of printing including screen printing and linocut printing. This little cat was my linocut effort.

December 2021

I had a contract earlier in the year to write a Tifaifai book for Editions de Saxe but because of my heart attack it has been pushed back a little. But this month I have been working on the last project for the book and also remade two little quilts ( as I had sold one of the ones I had made last year) as they needed to be photographed in high res for the book- it is my finishing job for January 2022.

I wanted to show how much fun a simple squiggly pattern can be. I made these into wall hangings but they could also make fun cushions.

So looking forward:

I will be running a Traveller's Blanket on-line class starting mid February. I will also be running the Tifaifai Class starting mid february. I will put details in my next post.

Meanwhile:

It is possible to enroll for the Pods, Pods, Pods class. These days I send out the notes and Video when payment is made so you can get started straight away and I will be  doing a zoom question and answer mid January  to share out efforts and to asnwer your questions . if you would like to enroll simply follow the Paypal button. The pods below are urchin shape , the pattern and instructions for which are also part of the course ( as are the pomegranates)

I also want to wish all my readers, friends and family a happy and safe 2022 and thank you for your support throughout 2021.